Day 59 - February 28

I think it's fitting to have the last day of February be about signs of spring. For three years of Kodiak living, we didn't see "spring" until sometime in May. I LOVE that it comes so much earlier here. LOVE it.

I grabbed the point and shoot (well, the nice point and shoot) on the way out for a quick walk with the dog and Michaela today, so I'll have to try to get a picture of this shrub with a better camera, but at least we've got flowers!

Day 58 - February 27

A half a week with the grandparents including about 27 hours of time WITH the grandparents and WITHOUT the parents makes for a sleepy girl. This was about 15 minutes earlier than normal bedtime tonight. Jason picked her up to bring her to bed and she just melted on his shoulder.

Forgive the cell-phone pic... no part of me was willing or able to take a real picture today. I might've had a leeeeetle too much fun last night!

Day 57 - February 26

This is coming a day late because we were away from the house overnight last night and didn't bring a computer along with us. And before I took the picture, I knew that the picture for the day would be from our Mardi Gras Ball last night!

With Grandma and Grandpa Jeff in town to stay with the toddler, Jason and I headed downtown for a couple parades and a night at the 19th Annual Gulf Coast Military Mardi Gras Ball. A good time was had by all!!

Day 56 - February 25

It's Mardi Gras time!!

For those that don't know, Mobile, AL, is actually the birthplace of Mardi Gras in the United States (take that, New Orleans!). And, along with that, it's a family-friendly celebration where waiving and shouting at the people on the floats in the parades gets you beads, rather than having to, ehem, perform.

So we headed to a parade tonight and found that having a cute little girl with you gets you lots of stuffed animal throws, along with beads and Moon Pies of all flavors!

Here's everyone but me as we got ready to head back to the car. The other thing missing from this picture is the GIANT teddy bear Michaela got. She cleaned up!

Day 55 - February 24

Fun with Grandma (and Grandpa... but the picture doesn't show that)!

My parents got into town yesterday afternoon. So, full-on grandparent fun commenced this morning and they wore the child out all day. Hopefully they'll all still be having fun by Saturday afternoon when they've had her by themselves for a few hours with another 24 to go!

Day 54 - February 23

I'm cheating today. I took this picture yesterday. I didn't touch my camera today. I was too busy getting ready for my mom and dad to arrive this afternoon.

So this will have to hold everyone over til I get back to it tomorrow!

Day 53 - February 22

No one wants to see pictures of the kid today. Most of the day was spent with snot running down her face either because she was crying, or just because she's a little sick (which is what was causing her to cry).

So instead I popped the macro lens on the camera this afternoon and got some still-life practice in.

Day 52 - February 21

Another day, another trip to the park. Which, of course, means we're back to a picture of the kid!

This one's self-explanatory... and cute if I do say so myself!

Day 51 - February 20

As anyone who is my friend on facebook knows, I've complained more than a few times about meal-planning. And, here, back on Day 24, I posted about my menu-planning and meatless Monday (which has completely gone by the way-side. Tomorrow's menu? Hamburgers. Yeah, that's meat, in case you're wondering.).

I hate meal planning. Hate it. However, given the fact that I hate going to the grocery store with a toddler even more, I plan our menu a week in advance and do all my shopping at once so that I can just get it over with. I usually have to go back for a quick trip once during the week to pick up fresh produce or meat, but I get most of it done at one time.

Some weeks, the menu planning is easy. Ideas just come to me, a list is built, and we're done. Other weeks, like this week, it is not as easy.

This was my afternoon - in front of the computer, with my recipe idea spreadsheet (yes, a spreadsheet) open and my favorite recipe magazines open all around me so I can decide what I really want and build my shopping list. You're ALLLLL jealous! (In all fairness, I re-staged this tonight for the picture, but it's accurate minus the beer that Jason was drinking while doing his homework. Maybe I should've had the beer this afternoon to help me get the ideas flowing better!!)

Day 50 - February 19

50 down! Only 315 to go!

It got up to nearly 80 degrees today. And the pool is up to something like 64 degrees or something like that. We happened to mention the pool to a friend of ours last night and he, in turn, asked his parents over and over again today about coming to swim.

So, swim he did. And so did Fred. That was a happy dog!

Day 49 - February 18

Apparently, today is National Wine (Drinking) Day. Who knew such a holiday existed?

I was happy to "celebrate" this evening, though. I don't know that I really need a reason to enjoy one of my single-serving bottles of Chandon Sparkling Wine, but I used the "holiday" as my reason tonight!

Cheers!

Day 48 - February 17

I should just rename this whole thing the 365 days of Michaela project. It's getting to be ridiculous with all these pictures of her. I swear, there is more to my life than the kid! Honestly!

We made our way back to the park today. Thankfully, we made it through without any vomit and we were back to the usual Michaela who kicked and cried when it was time to go!

She discovered a few new things today, courtesy of the bigger kids who were running around. One was the fireman pole, which, of course, requires assistance to use, so we'll be steering her away from that from now on! The other was the tires. She's played on these before, but always quickly lost interest. For whatever reason, today they were the greatest thing since sliced bread!

It takes a lot of concentration to navigate them, though... can't you tell?

Day 47 - February 16

Today started like any other day. We got moving, headed out to the park to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and temperatures in the 60s, and then it went downhill. Michaela only wanted to be at the park for minutes, asking to be picked up and to go home very shortly after we got there. Usually, I'm having to pull her away when it's time for lunch.

I should've known something was up. She vomited on the way home in the car (so much for that quick trip to Target), so when I got her home and cleaned up, I changed her into jammies and we just hung out the rest of the day. She took her normal nap and then seemed just fine when she got up.

This was taken post-nap, still in jammies and enjoying a little snack while watching "Finding Nemo" for the bazillion-eth time in the last two weeks. I think she was milking the morning random vomit episode just a bit....

Day 46 - February 15

In three tries this afternoon, Jason managed to not get a decent enough picture with my real camera for me to use here. In his defense, it was on auto and we were inside, so the shutter speed was VERY slow (thus, blurry people).

Thankfully, the iPhone was handy, so we have a back up!

I had a brunch this morning because my friend Beth, my first real Kodiak friend (and our neighbor when we lived there), is visiting her family in the states right now (they're currently stationed in Europe) and made her way over here for the day. It was more than a little bit wonderful to get to see her - and her kids, who somehow turned into grown-up kids in the last 7 months - again!!

Although there are few things we whole-heartedly miss about Kodiak, some of those things we DO miss are our friends and the fun we had in our little cul-de-sac.

It was awesome to see you, Beth!! It did my heart good!!!

Day 45 - February 14

Now that's love.

Any man can send roses. Roses are expected. Roses are THE Valentine's flower. Roses mean love.

But my husband sent me daisies and orange mini-roses. Why? Because daisies are my favorite flower and orange is my favorite color.

That's love.

Day 44 - February 13

Forgive me for choosing the same subject for a picture again, but the Christmas cactus has gone crazy so I had to get back to it! With no flowers around outside right now, I have to satisfy my need to take macro shots of flowers with something!

This is the same bloom I took a picture of back on Day 37. So in just about a week, it's fully opened and it's been joined by about a dozen more in various stages of bloom on the rest of the plant. Apparently the spare bedroom has been good to the cactus!

Day 43 - February 12

One day she's going to hate me for this....

I think I've mentioned before that Michaela has taken to putting Jason's shorts on like some sort of cape or something. She enjoys saying, "I dress," and putting them on because they're the only thing she can actually get on herself. She's NOT good with her own clothes.

So she found the shorts this morning and pulled them over her head. This was the outcome.

Day 42 - February 11

For the past week or so, at least on the days when it's sunny, we've been getting a major fit from the toddler when it's time to strap her into the stroller and go for our daily walk. I don't know why she has this sudden aversion to the stroller, but we didn't feel like dealing with it today.

Luckily, the temperature had come up enough by this afternoon that we didn't have to worry about her needing a blanket to keep her warm, so we traded the stroller out for the Kelty backpack. We had one happy girl who started saying, "I wide (ride)!" as soon as she saw the backpack and didn't stop til we got home!

(And, yes, she wore the sunglasses for the entire 40 minute walk!)

Day 41 - February 10

It's funny how a day that I spent mostly away from the kid (well, not really, just the morning) ends up with a picture of the kid anyway!

It got to be just about dinnertime tonight and I realized I hadn't touched a still camera of any sort all day. I'd taken some video at lunch, but that was it! So I plopped Michaela in a "big girl chair" and made her sit in front of the only window with any decent light still coming in. Then Jason called from work.

Speakerphone is an amazing invention. I got to talk to him, Michaela got to hold the phone (and say, "Hi, Daddy!" over and over again!), and I got to snap a few pictures. Fantastic!

Day 40 - February 9

I'm getting today's picture up EARLY so that I'm sure not to forget.

This is a fun picture for me, but probably boring for everyone else.

I headed over to the "Wee Exchange" in town here today. It's a HUGE consignment sale of kids things that's apparently held twice a year (I'm going to have to keep my eye out for the fall one now!). We just recently enrolled Michaela in a Mother's Day Out program for the summer and fall and she's going to need some play clothes that I don't mind getting a little messy. Although she has a closet full of cute dresses and outfits already for summer, courtesy of the grandmothers, she has very little that I wouldn't mind ruining if it came to it.

What better place to find that kind of stuff than at a sale of gently used things! For just about $100 (plus tax... blah), I managed to get her the cutest khaki jacket, 13 shirts, 3 pairs of shorts, 2 skirts, 6 pairs of capris (one of which still had the tags on it and is an adjustable waist pair!), 1 set of denim overall shorts, 2 pairs of shoes (one of them originally $40!!!!), the most adorable pillowcase dress, and one smocked dress (a staple of every Mobile toddler's wardrobe and WAAAAY out of our price range at full price). On top of the clothes, I also got her a floaty thing for the pool and 10 wooden puzzles (though one of the puzzles was of the name Mackenzie, so we gave it to a friend who has a daughter by that name!). SCORE!!!!

Day 39 - February 8

I'm a day behind again. I'm such a slacker. The problem was that I took a bunch of pictures yesterday but I knew I had some issues with trying to use my camera inside a not-bright house and very little came out well enough to even try to edit.

So, instead of using my own picture, I'm stealing one from my friend, Shelly. This is from our playgroup Valentine's party yesterday. These three are just about the same age. Michaela and the little boy, Julian, actually share a birthday (though she was born on July 16th at almost midnight Alaska time and Julian was born on the 16th sometime in the afternoon Mobile time). Kendall is only about a week or so older than the two of them (I think older.... now I can't remember). So playgroup is great because these three can keep each other VERY occupied!!

Day 38 - February 7

It's going to have to be an iPhone picture today. When Michaela started getting silly after dinner tonight, the camera wasn't nearby, but my phone was. So pardon the bad quality. I think it'll be worth it when you grasp the totality of what she's doing in this picture.

And, for the record, Jason and I had no part in this. This was alllll Michaela.

Day 37 - February 6

As per usual, our Christmas cactus apparently has no idea when Christmas is, or that, by virtue of being called a "Christmas" cactus, it's supposed to bloom sometime around then.

This one has bloomed in May, in the fall, around Christmas, and now, in February. Maybe it's because we keep moving it around the country and it has no idea what time of year it is anymore!

Day 36 - February 5

Today was a slightly better picture day than yesterday. In fact, I had three to choose from and decided to go with this one.

This morning we checked out the Mobile Chocolate Festival. It was slightly disappointing, but we ate some chocolate and some sweets covered in chocolate, and I spent way too much on a chocolate covered caramel apple which will most likely be my lunch tomorrow.

But they had a fire engine there for some reason (it's one you can apparently rent for parties... who knew such a thing existed?), and Michaela enjoyed that. I think maybe her dad did, too.

For the record, fluorescent lights are a challenge when you have your camera in manual, even if you have your white balance set right!

Day 35 - February 4

I'm a day late. But the picture was taken yesterday. We actually went out last night so I wasn't posting anything when we got home.

There are two reasons for this picture.... no, wait, make that three.

1) The wrist-bands are the symbol of our night out for our friend Tammie's 40th birthday. We had a yummy dinner and then saw a hypnotist at a local club.

2) We went to a club. We've never been to a club. At least not together. To say it's not our scene would be a small understatement. We're more the pub type, not the club type. But the show we went to see was at a club, so that's where we went. We left before the DJ and regular club stuff started, though, so I'm not sure it counts. But we were there.

3) I was too busy trying to clean and stuff so the babysitter didn't think we live like slobs so I didn't take a single picture until we got home and took off our wristbands. Then I took 3 - all of the same thing and this was the best one.

This was definitely a less-than-stellar picture day.

Day 34 - February 3

Kodiak walk or Mobile walk?

The current temperature in Mobile is 35 degrees. It's only 5 degrees colder in Kodiak. That's Alabama and Alaska for those who aren't sure where we're talking about.

What the heck, man? I did not sign up for the dog-walking gig in the freezing temperatures. With a child who doesn't like mittens or a blanket but is old enough to take them off a million times during a 30 minute walk. Bundling up was a much easier thing to do when she was too little to know any better.

Day 33 - February 2

Today's picture isn't about the quality of the picture. It's about what's in the picture.

That would be our indoor weather station showing a balmy 31 degrees at 7pm tonight.

What the heck. I did NOT sign up for this. And I really don't want to hear another person say it's "colder than normal this winter" one more time!!

Brrrrr!!!!!

Day 32 - February 1

Anyone want a sick kid?

Weird, me neither....

That's my way of explaining Michaela's awesome outfit. Those are her comfy sleeping pants (for nap) and I didn't feel like torturing her by putting her jeans back on her. I'm just thankful that you'd have to blow the picture up a lot in order to see the snot running out of her nose. She's like a faucet, seriously.

Those aren't the important parts of the picture, though. The important part is that she's eating popcorn with the little metal ladle from her play kitchen. And watching a Dora video. This kid cracks me up!

(The picture has a LOT of noise in it... I had to set my ISO to 3200 to keep her from being a blur since she moves so much, even when sitting "still" to watch a movie. And it was DARK in here today thanks to some sweet storms that rolled through! And I don't have noise reduction software - yet.)